Lunar Olympics

February 8, 2006: It's only a matter of time. One
day, winter Olympics will be held on the moon.

The
moon's dust-covered slopes are good
places to ski. There's plenty of powder, moguls and, best
of all, low-gravity. With only 1/6th g holding them down,
skiers and snowboarders can do tricks they only dreamed of
doing on Earth. How about an octuple-twisting quadruple backflip?
Don't worry. Crashes happen in slow-motion, so it won't hurt
so much to wipe out.

And
there's a perfect spot for the Olympic Village: the crater
Plato. Most people don't know it, but Plato of ancient Greece
was not only a philosopher, but also an Olympic champion.
Twice he won the pankration competition—a grueling mix of
boxing and wrestling. A crater named after Plato sounds like
a good place for Olympic athletes to stay. The site is flat-bottomed,
filled with raw materials for building stadia and habitats,
and like Torino, Italy, the site of this year's games, Plato
is near the Alps.

The
lunar Alps are a range of mountains on the moon named after
the Alps of Europe. They are similar to their Earthly counterparts
in height, breath and spectacle. Since the modern Olympics
began in 1896, most of the winter games have been held in
the Alps. Why should the moon be different?

You
can see the lunar Alps using a small backyard telescope. This
week is an excellent time to try: Step outside at sundown
and look up at the moon. The Olympic Village, crater Plato,
is a conspicuous dark oval on the northern shore of Mare Imbrium,
the "Sea of Rains." Your unaided eye is sufficient
to see it.

Next,
train your telescope on Plato. The Alps begin there. They
stretch around the rim of the Sea of Rains from Plato through
the spectacular Alpine Valley to towering Mont Blanc. Amateur
astronomer Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York, used a 10-inch
telescope to take this picture of the scene:

Above:
Plato and the lunar Alps, photographed by Alan Friedman of
Buffalo, New York. [Larger
image]

Although
the two Alps look much alike, they formed in different ways:

The
Alps of Earth grew over a period of millions of years. Powered
by plate tectonics, sections of Earth's crust pushed together,
squeezing the land to produce jagged mountains. The range
stretches from France through Italy all the way to Albania;
the tallest peak is Mont Blanc, 15,700 ft or 4800 m high.

The
Alps of the moon were formed in an instant some 4 billion
years ago when a huge asteroid struck. The collision blasted
out the Sea of Rains, which, contrary to its name, is a big
crater, not a big sea. The Alps are "splash" from
the impact.

In
those early days, lunar Alps were probably as jagged and rough
as the Alps of Earth. But in eons that followed, meteoroids
relentlessly pounded the moon, smashing rocks into dust and
blunting the sharp edges of mountain peaks. Today's lunar
Alps are a bit shorter (the moon's Mont Blanc is only 11,800
ft or 3600 m high) and a lot smoother than their terrestrial
counterparts—perfect for Olympics.

In
the weeks ahead, Science@NASA will publish a series of stories
exploring the physics of low-gravity Olympics. Is an octuple-twisting
quadruple backflip really possible? Should snowboarders be
allowed to pilot lunar landers? How is a bobsled like a spaceship?
Stay tuned for the answers to these questions and others—with
exclusive video from Olympic athletes.